


Fragments of the Kaleidoscope

by Sagus



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Alcohol, Nudity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-21 04:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10677681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagus/pseuds/Sagus
Summary: A collection of short stories, showcasing snapshots of the lives of Gensokyo’s inhabitants. Requests for specific characters and situations are welcome!





	1. Reisen's Fragment

Reisen stomped hard with her boots as she walked through the Bamboo Forest, her long ears twitching in irritation and frustration as she searched for the “small round pound” where Tewi was shrinking her duties.

She could never understand how that pest could be so disrespectful to her betters. Sure, Tewi would occasionally listen to Eirin, and to Kaguya, on the rare occasions where the princess asked a rabbit other than Reisen herself for anything (something that Reisen felt a sparkle of pride in, even though most tasks were often… not particularly glamorous), but to Reisen… the glint in her eyes when Reisen listed her tasks was nothing short of _infuriating_.

She wasn’t on the Moon anymore. She knew that. It had been decades since she last had Yorihime barking orders at her, since she last had drills to perform, targets to shoot, cadets to train, marches to walk. Eientei wasn’t like the military; Gensokyo wasn’t like the Lunar Capital. She knew that. She was an Earth rabbit now. Hadn’t she proudly declared so in front of Junko and Hecatia, just a few weeks ago?

But still… old habits die hard, and a measure of hierarchy, a semblance of _order_ , was simply needed to keep Reisen sane.

And Tewi just adamantly refused to let her have that.

Today, she was supposed to simply have helped the other rabbits hang the clean laundry to dry. She was the smartest among them, and they listened to her, so if she did it, the others would certainly help, and it’d be done in no time.

Instead, after Reisen had finished her morning lessons with Eirin, she went to the garden only to discover that the rabbits had seen it fit to make a large jumping rope with the very laundry that they were supposed to have hanged.

Now, were this a few decades ago, she would have been furious. She would have lined them up and screamed at the top of her lungs about things like “incompetence”, “uselessness”, “shame to their family”, and other such pleasantries.

But she had quickly learned that this never worked. The few times she actually managed to make them listen instead of running away laughing, it resulted in every single piece of clothing she had being progressively shredded to pieces over the course of the following ten months by many, many rabbit teeth.

So instead of losing her cool, she simply sighed, and asked the rabbit that was jumping the rope where Tewi was.

Apparently, she had been the first one to jump, and after scoring over a hundred perfect hops she decided to go take a bath at her usual “small round pound” near Eientei, to wash away the sweat.

Which was why Reisen found herself walking around the premises of Eientei, searching for the damn pound where that accursed rabbit was.

She had been at it for at least a full hour, having circled the mansion times beyond counting and wishing dearly that her powers could work the way that that star fairy’s did, when she heard the faintest sound of water being dropped in the distance.

Immediately turning in the direction of the noise, Reisen ran towards it, distorting the light and sound waves around her to make herself invisible. Jumping from bamboo pole to pole with the practiced grace, she quickly began to triangulate the area where the pond would be likely be located.

In the middle of her calculations, she suddenly noticed a faint beaten path in the corner of her eye. After a moment of hesitation, she jumped on top of it, and immediately saw a small sign with the words “to the baths” scribbled on it. Scratching her head, she looked back to where the path originated, and saw that it led straight back to Eientei. The entrance to the mansion itself was even visible in the distance; Kaguya was sitting there, looking at the sky.

This… hadn’t been there before.

Reisen let out a long sigh.

Sometimes, she really hated that forest.

Rubbing her eyes, she followed the trail, figuring it wouldn’t have appeared if it didn’t want to be followed. It didn’t take long after that for her to hear the sound of water being splashed around.

Right before the curve that would certainly lead to the pond, Reisen realized that it’d be best to try and circle the area; Tewi would have no doubt booby trapped the main entrance, and Reisen didn’t feel like spending the next four hours down in a hole.

Making sure that she could still see the road when she stepped among the bamboo rods, Reisen meticulously walked in the direction of the splashing sounds again, subconsciously avoiding fallen bamboo branches even though her power made such prudence meaningless.

When she finally found the pond (small and round, like the rabbit said), she didn’t immediately see Tewi. Her heart sank a little before she noticed the pink dress and carrot charm haphazardly thrown on the grass, near a small, closed bamboo basket. Reassured, she kneeled near the border between the forest and the pond clearing, and waited.

Before long, Tewi’s floppy ears broke the surface of the water, followed shortly by the small curtain of curly black hair that cascaded from the back of her head. She was staring in the direction opposite to Reisen, so she couldn’t see her face. Which was fortunate; Reisen was sure that the rabbit was wearing her usual, insufferably smug expression, and seeing it would certainly cause her to break her cover.

Reisen decided to wait a bit more; when Tewi left the pond and got dressed, she’d show herself and confront her about her lack of responsibility.

It took her a few second to realize that this would mean seeing Tewi naked.

A hot wave of embarrassment crept through Reisen’s face as she quickly reconsidered her plans. When they were in animal form or when they played around in their carefree manner, Reisen often forgot that, although they were small, the rabbits’ humanoid bodies actually looked like fully grown adults. She had aided a few of the rabbit children in taking baths before, but she never saw – that is to say, seeing an adult– seeing _Tewi_ , of all youkai – no, no no no no, she couldn’t do this – she’d confront Tewi when she went back home, yes, that would certainly be–

Before she could bring herself to move, Tewi rose from the water, giving Reisen a full view of her naked back.

Reisen’s mind went blank, and her eyes widened at the sight.

Arching between her shoulders, in the length above her hips, and all over her back were enormous, horribly jagged scars. Uneven and wide, they looked as if they had been made by a gigantic set of teeth, though Reisen had no idea what in Gensokyo would be large enough to leave such a huge bite mark, or how Tewi could have possibly survived such an encounter. What’s more, they looked recent, too; they had a strong red color, and the skin around them was rough and irritated, as if the flesh beneath it had been dangerously infected. Just looking at them sent a shiver down Reisen’s spine.

Unable to tear her eyes away, she watched as Tewi lazily ran her hand through her hair, stretched, and then slowly walked towards the edge of the pond. Her movements were careful and deliberate, and she appeared to struggle a bit when she knelt beside the bamboo basket.

When she opened it, Reisen saw that it was filled to the brim with recently harvested cattail flowers.

With utmost care, Tewi took one with her left hand and crushed it with her right, running the length of the head with a closed fist. Once the plant had given her all the pollen it had, she set its remains aside.

She then lifted the black tresses over her neck with her free hand and positioned the one carrying the yellow powder at its base. She paused, only for a moment, and then slowly spread her fingers apart.

The cattail’s pollen ran down her back like water; when it reached her scars, a soft sigh escaped from her lips, and a small smile spread over her face. A single flower didn’t provide much, though, and the relief on her face was short lived. When the flow stopped, she reached down on her back and gently patted her yellowed hand against her skin, determined to use every speck of powder possible.

After making sure that no grain had been wasted, she took a new flower from inside her basket and repeated the process.

Reisen felt horribly guilty; this was clearly a very intimate moment, and she had no right to be here. Still, her curiosity won over her sense of decency; so after a little bit of internal struggle, she ended up sitting there and watching the ritual for a while longer, transfixed.

It was slow, but every time Tewi went through the motions, her scars seemed to fade: first, from their vivid red to a dull brown; then, to a very light shade of white; and, finally, to a soft pink tone, matching that of her normal skin. As their color changed, Tewi’s movements became faster and more fluid as well, and after a while, she began to softly hum the hymn to Lord Daikoku that the rabbits loved so much.

Deciding that she had watched enough after the tenth or so crushed flower, and having finally recovered the use of her legs, Reisen got on her feet and quickly found and followed the path leading back to Eientei, trying hard not to think too much about what she had just seen.

As she neared the mansion’s gates, she dispelled her invisibility, attracting the attention of Kaguya, who was still sitting nearby.

She gave Reisen a knowing look, and smirked.

“Enjoyed the show?”

Reisen blushed and avoided the princess’ gaze, becoming suddenly very interested in the buttons of her shirt.

“I…  please don’t tell her.”

“Tell who what? I was talking about the sky. The clouds look very interesting today!”

Sighing in relief, Reisen gave Kaguya a small smile.

“…thank you, princess.”

Kaguya returned her smile, and resumed her sky gazing.

Reisen studied her for a few moments, then passed through the gates and entered the mansion, arriving at Eirin’s lab barely in time for her afternoon lessons.

That night, she made sure to fill Tewi’s mug with her favorite brand of beer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, I like to think that adult Earth rabbits have the bodies of fully grown women/men, only with a small stature (not unlike hobbits). Less creepy that way, I think.


	2. Yuuka's Fragment

In the middle of her morning stroll through her garden, Yuuka decided to stop and watch a group of fairies playing among her flowers, under the scalding sun of Gensokyo’s summer.

It was the middle of the season, and the garden’s sunflowers were on their prime; it was no wonder, then, that so many fairies had been visiting it lately. Initially, they would scatter in fear whenever they spotted Yuuka approaching; however, the youkai had been curiously complacent that year. Soon, the fairies grew used to her presence, and began playing around the field in their usual carefree manner.

That day, there was a small group of them dancing in the air, holding hands and giggling, twirling and twirling in disorienting, uncoordinated swirls. Their colorful wings shone under the sunlight, some as blue as the sky, some as clear as water, some as red as blood. Their movements stirred the scent of the sunflowers, and the gentle breeze that accompanied them carried the fragrance throughout the land.

Yuuka’s parasol was open, casting a nice shadow over her head. She didn’t really feel the heat of the sun, but she found the shade over her eyes to be pleasant. A small smile was sculpted on her face, as was usual.

A smile that widened considerably as a fairy accidentally hit a sunflower with her feet after a particularly poorly planned dance move, which resulted in the removal of quite a few of its petals.

The fairies gasped, and all turned to Yuuka. They froze in the air, wings fluttering; some had hands covering their mouths, other had tears beginning to gather in their eyes.

The whole world seemed to quiet down. The previously chirping insects fell silent; the singing birds grew mute.

The silence was broken as Yuuka laughed.

Retaining her smile, she gently beckoned the fairy who had harmed her flower.

The small girl yelped, face pale, large eyes widened in terror. She clutched her white dress and fluttered her clear butterfly wings, frantically moving her head from side to side, desperately seeking the help of her friends. When they all simply flew further away from her, she sighed in defeat, turning to Yuuka and slowly, reluctantly, flying in her direction. Her head hanged low, like a prisoner walking towards the gallows, but her silver eyes didn’t dare move away from Yuuka’s red ones.

After what must certainly have felt like an eternity for her, her bare feet touched the ground, neck straining in order to look up.

“What’s your name?” Yuuka asked.

“….M-M-Marigold… M-Marigold White…” the fairy said, almost inaudibly.

Yuuka cocked her head. Such a small creature; she barely reached her waist. Yuuka closed her parasol, set it aside, and kneeled, so that she could stare her straight in the eyes.

She raised her hand. Marigold flinched. Yuuka let out a soft laugh.

Slowly, gently, Yuuka picked a thick mesh of white hair from the fairy’s head, as if she were caressing one of her own beloved flowers. She delicately spun her hand in a circular motion, weaving the tresses tightly around and between her fingers, making sure to not let any stray strand escape from her grasp.

Then, with one strong and sharp pull, she ripped the hair straight out of Marigold’s scalp.

Marigold screamed as she clutched her head and covered the now bleeding spot, trying in vain to subdue the pain radiating from it. She tried to fly away, but Yuuka held her down by her shoulders. Fear renewed in her eyes, and Yuuka could see the tears streaming down her face. Once more, she tried to escape, fighting in vain against the iron grip on her shoulder.

Yuuka smiled at that.

She watched quietly until Marigold finally stops struggling, defeated. She was shaking, shivering in terror, trying but utterly failing at containing the sobs escaping from her lips.

Chuckling, Yuuka turned her attention to the injured sunflower.

She made a small flourish with her free hand, and the fallen yellow petals were suddenly filled with spontaneous life. They gently shot towards the air, as if stirred by the wind, and flew towards her, dancing, swirling and playing as if by their own will.

When they reached Yuuka, she nodded towards Marigold. The petals began to circle around the fairy’s head, jumping up and down as if waiting for something. Marigold looked at them with wide eyes, suspicious and frightful, not knowing what to do.

With a mocking sigh, Yuuka delicately grabbed the hand that was covering the recently bald spot on Marigold’s head and moved it. The skin was red and irritated, and the fairy hissed in pain as it was exposed to the air. Marigold tried, in vain, to resist, but quickly gave up.

As soon as the two stop moving, all the petals immediately converged towards the patch of naked scalp on Marigold’s head. The first to arrive covered half of it, the second the other half, and every subsequent one pile on top of the other, until a thin yellow patch formed, soft and pleasant to the touch.

Marigold looked at Yuuka, confused. Yuuka just kept smiling.

A second later, the girl screamed again as the petals begin to bury under her skin, melting as if they were made of gold. They infiltrated the empty hair follicles of her scalp, filling them with a scalding yellow liquid that burned like red-hot iron. Marigold fought desperately against Yuuka’s hold, trying in vain to flee, before a strong pull from Yuuka forced her to stop. She openly cried, eyes closed as the tears fell without end, the pain on her head quickly becoming unbearable.

Yuuka’s smile widened.

And then, suddenly, the pain stopped.

Confused, Marigold opened her red and swollen eyes.

A tingling, prickling sensation spread from the spot where the petals buried under her skin. She instinctively reached to scratch it, but Yuuka quickly took hold of her hand, head shaking slowly from side to side.

Moments later, a mesh of yellow hair began to quickly grown from the fairy’s bald spot. Her eyes widened in amazement as it reached and quickly surpassed them, steadily growing longer and longer. It stopped just short of her chest, at a far greater length than the rest of her short hair.

With a satisfied nod, Yuuka released Marigold’s hands, who hastily grabbed the newly colored mesh. The fear that covered her face moments ago was completely gone, replaced with wonder and curiosity. She marveled as she raised her sparkling eyes towards the sun, one hand covering an eye and the other holding her hair as she compared its color to the celestial body’s light.

With shouts of joy, Marigold quickly took to the air, searching for her friends while waving around her new yellow tress. The other fairies left their hiding spots, curious about her friend’s happiness. As they saw the reason for her enthusiasm, they quickly gathered around her, excited, all fear of the terrible youkai just below them completely forgotten as they played with Marigold’s hair.

Yuuka watched from the ground, satisfied.

As the fairies resumed their mid-summer dance, now led by Marigold, she turned around and continued her walk through her garden.

If any other fairy touched her sunflowers now, she would know.


	3. Suika's Fragment

The whole Underground shook as block after block of the Former Hell’s Capital exploded into mountains of rubble and dust, sending the local youkai scattering through the air. The shouts of fairies filled the air as they fled from the falling debris, and the titanic stalactites that hung miles above in the abode of the cavern trembled slightly from the shock-waves.

From the nearly unrecognizable remains of an old, abandoned storehouse, Suika coughed as she got up and attempted to balance herself.

Once she managed to stand relatively straight, she looked around her, and noticed that she actually couldn’t see a damn thing from all the dust hanging in the air.

Frowning, she began to wave her arms in sloppy, lopsided circles in an attempted to clean her surroundings.

When her flailing failed to clear any significant amount of air, she intensified her efforts, making the chains attached to her wrists fly as she spiraled around the place like a whipping top spun by a particularly unskilled child.

Predictably, not only did she fail to clear any dust, but she also found herself back on the ground shortly after, the spinning visage of the world in her eyes no longer just a side-effect of her unending drunkenness.

Just as she started to get used to her new life on the floor, the earth began to shake.

 _Thump_.

A pause.

_Thump._

Another pause.

 _Thump_.

The strength of the tremors increased with each sound.

 _Thump_.

Like a turtle trying to right itself after having fallen on its back, Suika started to slowly move her limbs around. At first, she tried to roll on her belly; however, the large horns protruding from the sides of her head stopped her. Then, she tried to do a reverse roll, attempting to throw her legs over her head and use the momentum to right herself; however, her horns foiled her plan once more, getting stubbornly stuck on the ground. Finally, she decided to sit; surprisingly, that plan actually worked.

Getting on her feet was out of question, though, so she scuttled around on her butt until she was facing the giant tunnel of destruction cutting through the Former Hell’s Capital from which she had just came.

A good amount of dust had already settled, so Suika managed to see pretty far ahead. Squinting her eyes, she could just barely see the colossal shape walking towards her, a gigantic rock mace in one hand and a comically small sake dish on the other.

The gears on her brain slowly started to turn as the looming figure drew ever closer, each of his steps making Suika’s body jump up and down on the ground. A faint feeling of recognition began to brew on the back of her brain, aided by the sudden arrival of a strong smell of alcohol and sulfur.

Finally, the blue skinned oni reached the entrance of the ruined storehouse, his short, stubby horns barely visible as they surpassed the remains of the busted front of the tall building. Sitting as she was, Suika barely reached the height of his shins. She curved her neck as she looked up and up and up, passing from a giant patchwork of animal skins covering elephant-sized thighs to a superbly made tunic sewn from red and yellow silks. She nearly fell backwards before her eyes finally reached the furious face hiding beneath a thick curtain of straight, neatly combed hair. When she spotted the two burning red lights at the top of that mountain of muscle, it finally clicked.

“Oh, hey there! You’re the guy I swiped that drink from, right? My bad. Didn’t notice it was yours.”

A loud burp escaped from her mouth.

“But in my defense, it was _really_ _fricking good_.”

Faster than a man could blink, the oni raised his stone mace, holding it above his head for a heartbeat. A guttural, ear-splitting roar erupted from his cavernous mouth as he brought his weapon down, striking with pin-point accuracy the exact spot where Suika was sitting.

The force of the impact obliterated whatever remained of the dilapidated storehouse alongside the three neighboring blocks, sending boulder-sized chunks of rock hurling through the air. The ground beneath the giant sunk as an immense crater formed under his feet. His body was unflinching as a storm of rubble exploded around him. A huge pillar of dirt rose all around the area, engulfing the center of the Capital in a curtain of thin grey ash, as if a volcano has just erupted right in the middle of the city.

As the cacophony of destruction caused by the falling debris ceased and the dust from the explosion finally began to settle, the oni removed his mace from the ground. Noting that there was nothing left beneath it besides powdered rock and a thin white mist, he grunted in satisfaction, and turned around.

Just as he began to trace his steps back from the way he had come from, however, he saw with the corner of his eyes the mist from his recently made crater rise in a decidedly unnatural way, swaying from side to side as if trying to figure out where to go. He turned once more to face it, curious, as the thin cloud-like entity appeared to actually spin around itself in confusion.

It suddenly stopped as it… “saw”… the oni’s face, and awkwardly flew in his direction. When it reached a few meters from him, it quickly began to gather into a single point, becoming denser and denser until suddenly Suika materialized upside-down in front of him.

As the oni’s thick eyebrows shot up in surprise, Suika righted herself and laughed.

“Nice one, man. Now, come on, my turn.”

She pulled her arm as far back as she could and, after a moment to adjust herself, threw an incredibly sloppy punch.

The gigantic oni laughed, and lazily raised a tree trunk-like arm to block her attack.

For a singular moment after Suika’s fist connected to the mid-section of his forearm, nothing happened.

Then, the sickening noise of bone shattering and flesh being ripped apart echoed throughout the Former Capital as the oni’s arm split in two.

The titan’s face could barely begin to twist into a grimace of surprise and pain before the devastating power of Suika’s blow surpassed his defenses and hit him square in the chest, caving it in with a gruesome sound. A shower of blood and gore exploded from the oni’s torso as the immeasurable force of the impact refused to subdue, violently smashing his body against the floor and crushing the rock beneath him into absolutely nothing, throwing him down into a quickly deepening tunnel that was digging straight towards the center of the Earth.

Suika watched with hazed eyes as the oni sunk lower and lower into the ground, flesh being ripped from his bones, bones being grinded into dust, and screams quickly fading into complete silence.

She cupped an ear and brought it slightly closer to the hole, trying to catch any remaining sound.

When nothing but the quiet underground breeze reached her, she shrugged, and snapped her fingers.

Surrounding debris from the previous explosions suddenly rose to the air and flew towards the open tunnel in the ground, quickly and haphazardly throwing themselves into it. Even the blanket of dust that covered over half of the Capital began to move, rising like storm clouds before funneling into the hole, gathering inside the spaces between the chunks of rock and condensing into a thick, solid mass, binding them together.

A few seconds later, not a single displaced boulder or speck of dirt remained.

Taking a long drink from her gourd, Suika zigzagged her way back to the ground and followed the path that the giant had carved with her body back towards its origin.

When she finally arrived, she noticed, to her great pleasure, that the bartender, bar, and at least part of the entrance of her favorite underground pub were all still standing. The rest of the walls, roof, tables, chairs and patrons, not so much, but that was hardly relevant.

She gently pushed the lower remaining half of the door open; it made a loud creaking noise, and then promptly collapsed. She stared at it for a moment before shrugging and stumbling her way towards the counter.

 As she sat on top of the sole remaining stool, the red skinned bartender shot her a nasty glare.

Without looking, Suika waved her hand dismissively towards her.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. Put it in my tab. I’ll pay the spiders to rebuild your stuff again.”

She took another long gulp from her gourd as she heard the bartender let out a long, resigned sigh.

“Now, come on, girl! What does a Deva have to do to get a decent drink around here?” Suika said, looking at her with twinkling eyes and her usual, sharp toothed grin.


	4. Yoshika's Fragment

Yoshika was staring at a vast lake.

She did not remember walking there, but then again, she never really remembered much of anything.

It took her a few moments to notice that there wasn’t an ofuda hanging in front of her face.

That wasn't too rare an occurrence; from time to time, it would naturally fall off, or get caught up on tree branches, or someone would remove it, to see what happened.

The lake is front of her was really big.

It stirred something in her memories, but it was hard for Yoshika to focus on what.

It was always hard to focus on anything, when she was like this.

Maybe if she stared longer, it would eventually come…

\--------------------------

_“The three-thousand-fold world exhausts itself before my eyes. The twelve-link chain of causation...”_

_\--------------------------_

“...becomes... empty in my... heart” Yoshika whispered under her breath, her voice hoarse and cracked.

The lake… it reminded her of another lake that she saw a long, _long_ time ago.

Something to do with buddhism?

Ah, something talked to her back then, did it not? Silky and sweet...

\--------------------------

_“That's quite deep, coming from one as young as you,” a soft voice said, right by Yoshika's side. “Are you a nun? Or perhaps a scholar?”_

_Yoshika turned her head, surprised and embarrassed that someone had overheard her daydreaming aloud._

_A tall and incredibly beautiful woman stood beside her. Her face was powdered white, and her lips painted small with a vivid red color. Her hair, styled in two loops secured with a large and ornate hairstick, had a strange and unnatural blue hue that matched her eyes. Her exquisitely elaborate kimono was light blue and white, and brought to mind the garments worn by noblewomen._

_Yoshika felt incredibly self-conscious as the woman looked at her. Her hands nervously twisted the hem of her hakama as she truned her gaze downwards._

_“N-n-not at a-all, ma'am. I-I'm, visiting the temple only, yes.”_

_“Ah, are you a Buddhist?”_

_“I-I guess? I-I think so?”_

_The woman laughed, and Yoshika felt her heart pound hard against her chest as she listened to that heavenly sound._

_“What about a poet?”_

_“I-I would call m-myself one, yes.”_

_“I can see that you do have a way with words.”_

_She smiled wide, making Yoshika's mind go completely blank._

_She opened her mouth, but only a string of meaningless words came out, so she clenched her teeth hard._

_“Won't you recite more of your poems for me?” the woman asked. “Miss...”_

_“Yoshika! Miyako no Yoshika!” Yoshika said, a little too loudly in her excitement. Not many people asked her to share her art with them. “Y-yes! I-I-I would l-love to! Recite them for you, m-miss… miss...”_

_The woman bowed slightly, beaming another dazzling smile at Yoshika before answering._

_“Huo Qing'e. But you may also call me...”_

\--------------------------

“Ah! When I met...” Yoshika paused for a second. “When I met Seiga! That's right.”

Yeah, that made sense. She recited a bunch of poems that day, though she did not remember most of them.

Seiga had always loved her poems, she faintly recalled. She used to ask her to recite them, when they were alone, when they lived together in a large, large house and slept in a large, large bed.

Then something happened, but Yoshika couldn't remember much.

No words to connect, only disjointed images and a terrible taste in her mouth.

Seiga did not ask for poems much after that. She used Yoshika for other things, violent things, and the rare times she asked for her compositions, she always had a wistful glint in her eyes that gave Yoshika a weird sensation inside her chest.

She was not sure what it was. There was not really anything inside her chest anymore.

But it sure was not very pleasant.

“The entire universe… is only dust in front of our eyes” Yoshika mumbled. “The twelve causes of human suffering...”

She paused.

How did the rest go?

“Are only the void behind the human heart” a soft voice said, right by Yoshika's side.

It took the jiang-shi a moment to react, and when she turned her head, she saw a tall and beautiful woman sitting beside her. She had a smile on her lips, but her eyes shone in a weird way.

Seconds later, the gears moved inside Yoshika’s head.

“Ah! Seiga Nyan Nyan!” Yoshika said. “You remember that one? A god gave it to me, you know!”

“I know” Seiga replied, her voice low and strange. “How did you end up here, my little rotten peach?”

“I do not know!” Yoshika said, smiling. Smiling was easier when she did not have an ofuda on her head, though it still felt odd. Stiff, strained, as if the sides of her mouth were too hard to move, and her skin would rip if she smiled too wide.

“You don't know, you say… ah, that's no good, that's no good” Seiga muttered, beckoning Yoshika with her finger and patting her lap.

Yoshika promptly threw herself into the ground, falling face first into Seiga’s legs.

Everything went dark, and Yoshika was quite surprised night had arrived so fast.

A soft laugh reached her ears as a pair of hands touched her shoulders, gently nudging her to roll over.

She dutifully did so, and suddenly it was morning again, and Seiga’s face was staring down at her. Seiga was smiling, which made Yoshika smile as well.

“Don't move now, love” Seiga said, and her voice still had that weird tone.

What was it, what was it…

Seiga's hand came into view, and she held a slip of paper with beautiful calligraphy drawn on it. Yoshika tried to read it, but she could not connect the shapes to any particular words.

“It'll be alright.”

 _'Ah'_ Yoshika thought, as Seiga's hand moved closer and closer to her.

_'She sounds really sad.'_

Seiga placed the ofuda on Yoshika's forehead, and the world became quiet and simple once more.


	5. Rumia and Reimu's Fragment

“Please… help me...” the human murmured. He was slumped on the ground, back against a tree. His limbs were splayed in funny positions, and blood ran down the back of his head, from his nose, and from a destroyed eye. It tickled down from his chin, going plip-plop on the ground.

Rumia's nose tingled at the scent of blood, and she cocked her head slightly.

Was he safe to eat?

He wore strange clothes, nothing like the ones from the village; it was all gray, with white inside, and a noose around his neck which was kinda like the red markings around her collarbone.

Someone once told her they made it look like she was wearing a “tie”. Maybe that's what the man had.

Rumia looked up.

There was a path of broken branches and gently falling leaves, which started somewhere around the middle of the tree.

 _'Ah!'_ Rumia thought. ' _It must be a gift!'_

Crouching in front of the man, Rumia extended her hand and let his blood fall over one of her fingers. Once her black claw had been completely painted red, she brought it to her mouth and rolled her tongue over it, wiping it clean.

She closed her eyes and hummed in excitement. It had been such a long, long time since she had had fresh human blood, she had almost forgot the taste. How it rolled on her tongue, sweet and rich. A perfect… what was it that Mystia said?

A perfect appetizer, yes.

The sound of the man's heartbeat was slowly fading from her ears, but even so, she could feel it increase ever so slightly after he saw her delighting over his blood.

She smiled, exposing her razor sharp teeth.

She loved the sound of a human's beating heart. It was her eyes in her darkness, what brought her to her prey. While hunting or while playing danmaku, it didn't really matter. She just loved the sound.

“What… wha...” the man babbled, and a few blood bubbles popped around his mouth.

Rumia giggled at that.

“How did you end up here, mister?” she asked, her deceptively young voice accompanied by a low, guttural growl. That always happened when she was in front of a meal; it was kind of embarrassing, but it couldn’t really be helped.

The man didn't answer immediately, but Rumia could still hear his heartbeat, so she waited.

“I… I jumped...”, he finally said. “I couldn't… not anymore… so I jumped… the wind… was howling...”

“And then it wasn't, right?”

“No… purple and... red... and blue… arms… _eyes_...”

“Yes! I knew it!” Rumia says, clapping as she got up. She laughed and twirled in place, the black sheets of skin attached to her waist fluttering silently as the equally dark soles of her feet crushed a few of the gathering centipedes on the ground.

“Please… help me...” the man pleaded once more, the words barely leaving his mouth.

Rumia jumped onto the man's broken leg, perching on it with perfect balance as she crouched again. He didn’t react to that.

“You jumped! You crossed the boundary, which means you're ours now. Be happy! You'll still get what you wanted.”

“No… please… ple… e…”

“Hey, hey!” Rumia said, smiling and outstretching her arms as much as she could. “Do you think this says, 'the saint was crucified on the cross?'”

The man's heartbeat ceased.

Rumia's smile widened.

\--------------------------

Reimu was greeted with a rather grisly scene when her feet touched the ground.

Staring at her with shiny red eyes and large chunks of meat on her hands was Rumia, who was perched on top of a red, disfigured mass that had been a human body once. Her black and white skin, which so resembled a skirt and a vest when seen at a glance, was stained red from head to toes. Her hair, however, was miraculously clean, as was the charm tied to it, which only made the scene look more surreal.

The metallic sent of blood filled Reimu's nostrils as she looked quietly at the youkai. She could feel the tinge of fear in Rumia’s gaze; how it wandered from her gouhei to her throat, from her eyes to the trees behind her.

“I didn't kill him” Rumia finally said, slowly putting another chunk of meat into her mouth. “He was dying already. Wasn't even from here. And I didn't kill him.”

Sighing, Reimu waved her hand towards Rumia, who flinched.

“Yeah, whatever. You ate enough already. If you eat anymore his ghost won't go to the Sanzu, and it'll be a bother to everyone. Especially to me.”

“But there's still a lot to eat!”

Reimu snapped her fingers, and her ying-yang orb suddenly appeared beside her.

Growling in frustration, Rumia ripped two handfuls of meat from the carcass and flew away, enveloping herself in her darkness. She hit the exact same tree twice as she went up, finally managing to find her way around it in her third try, and before long, she disappeared into the night sky.

With another tired sigh, Reimu turned to what was left of the corpse.

She drew a charm from inside her sleeves as she her foggy mind attempted to remember which chants would be appropriate. She almost never had to conduct real funerals, and the rites always found their way out of her mind at the most inopportune moments.

Especially in the dead of the night, after being forcibly woken up and sent on stupid errands by a lazy hag that couldn't be assed to do her job properly.

After a few minutes of dazed head scratching, she eventually decided to just do a quick purification chant, and threw the charm into the body.

Flames immediately erupted over the mangled flesh. The smell of charred meat quickly spread, and before long Reimu felt a number of small youkai crawling nearby. None, however, had the courage to step near the light. Lowly beasts who could scarcely avoid rustling leaves and twigs, they would probably evaporate if they got any closer to that holy flame.

Reimu sat down on the ground and crossed her legs.

An eerie humming sound echoed to her left, and when she turned her head, there was a small, white bottle of sake laying on the grass, cold wax covering its mouth.

Taking the bottle, Reimu opened it and took a long sip, draining it to its half and relishing the burning sensation as its contents slid down her throat. The other half she threw into the fire, making the pyre roar. A number of creeping centipedes hastily retreated to the forest; the few who were too slow or too small couldn't stand the heat for long, and soon turned into black smoke that quickly dissipated.

Reimu sighed for what seemed the hundredth time that night, her shoulders sagging from more than just physical exhaustion.

“I'm tired of this, Yukari” she said to thin air. “I really am.”

Nothing answered.

After a few moments, the fires finally calmed down, and the faintest sound of wind chimes echoed in her ears.

She nodded, and watched in silence as the flames slowly erased all traces of what had happened there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, I like to think that low level youkai like Rumia aren't entirely able to take fully human shapes or perfect human disguises, so they change their body to be as close as possible to a good bait. So here, Rumia isn't wearing clothes, but her skin is colored in a way that makes it look like she's wearing a simple dress, and a natural skirt made of skin helps with the illusion. In the dark, it'd be hard to notice until you're too close, after all...


	6. Yukari's Fragment

Suspended in the phantasmagorical void between reality and illusion, Yukari watches Gensokyo through eight million eyes as her body begins to slow down. Winter has arrived once more, and her connection to the world grows dim; it is unwise to manifest herself when the winds of death start blowing in earnest.

All around her, she sees Gensokyo and its surroundings beginning to prepare for the season.

She sees Reimu sweeping the path towards her shrine with her young, calloused hands, sighing in frustration as she watches the breeze slowly cover it with dead leaves once more. Deciding to give the fruitless task a pause, Reimu absentmindedly looks around her premises, watching the naked trees and idly wondering what this winter will bring. Without her knowledge, a small, purple rift in space opens just above the donation box of the shrine; three ten thousand yen bills silently slip from the gap into the box, landing softly on its empty wooden bottom.

She sees Marisa studying in the middle of her incredibly chaotic house, sitting on an old wooden chair precariously balanced on its two back legs. Her feet are resting on top of a table covered with heavily scribbled notepads, densely filled scrolls, and half-empty potion vials. A book sits on her lap, and she hums an improvised song as she reads its lines. With one hand she magically underlines the occasional passage; with the other, she practices drawing arcane signs in the air. A particular configuration unexpectedly sends a small bolt that strikes a tall book pile, making it collapse with a spectacular sound. The sudden noise throws Marisa out of her trance, causing her to break her balance and fall straight to the ground.

She sees Sanae in a similar predicament to Reimu as the strong winds of the mountain cover the pathway that she had just cleaned with dozens of dead leaves. Grunting in frustration, she throws her broom to the ground and scratches her head. An idea suddenly comes to her. After casting a quick glance back towards her Shrine, she closes her eyes and begins to focus her energy into her oonusa. A faint green aura begins to surround her, and shortly after, the winds begin to blown wildly in every direction. Sanae opens her eyes and quickly takes to the air, laughing. Waving her hands, she takes control of the currents, and proceeds to use them to quickly clean the path to her Shrine once more. Before long, her original task is forgotten, and she finds herself simply dancing through the air, enjoying the feeling of the divine power that flows through her veins.

She sees Remilia beginning to stir inside her coffin as she senses the night approaching, wings trembling in anticipation. Her pet chupacabra sleeps by her side, snoring lightly and occasionally clicking its claws against the bars of its cage. Sitting in a chair nearby, Sakuya watches Remilia with warm eyes, waiting to be the first to greet her mistress, as she has done every day for longer than she cares to remember. She bought numerous new types of tea today during her visit to the village’s market, half of which she doesn’t even remember the name, and she’s anxious to prepare them for her beloved.

She sees Yuyuko walking in the direction of the Saigyouji Ayakashi, a beautiful bouquet of the most diverse flowers held tightly in her hands. Strands of her pink hair peek from behind the veil on the back of her head, displaced by the Netherworld’s gentle breeze. Hakugyokurou is quiet and devoid of spirits; there is no one around to watch the gracefulness of her delicate, solemn movements as she climbs the stone steps towards the cherry tree, to remind herself of what happened on this day so long, long ago. To the world, her face is the perfect mask of serene beauty and composure; to Yukari, she might as well be openly crying.

She sees Yuuka leaving Youkai Mountain, having satisfied her need to care for the autumnal flowers that are so rich there. Wolf tengu snarl at her back as she walks, fear and apprehension evident in their eyes as they secretly praise their gods that this creature is finally leaving their home.  If Yuuka notices it at all, she does not seem to care in the slightest. She now aims for the borders of Gensokyo, towards the eternally blooming cherry blossoms of Muenzuka; there she will stay, caring for its unnatural flowers for the rest of the season. Whether they want her to or not.

She sees Komachi’s shoulders slump as she returns from Higan and sees that the line of ghosts waiting to cross the Sanzu River has increased two-fold during her last voyage, and she remembers that they are now entering the season of death. With a heavy, drawn out sigh, she leaves her scythe resting on her boat and thinks about taking a nap by the dead trees, near where the spirits of children continuously pile their rocks. She arrives in time to see one of the kids pile crumble to the ground, just as it had reached the child’s own height. The spirit pauses for a moment, face expressionless, before kneeling down and beginning its hopeless task once more. With another sigh, Komachi walks in its direction; perhaps this time, she might finally convince one of them to come with her.

She sees Shizuha materializing her body after painting the last leaf in Gensokyo that's still on its tree a deep shade of brown. With a hand on her chin, she avails her work for a few minutes; then, with a shrug, she kicks the tree’s trunk with her skinny legs, causing the singular leaf to fall. Job done, she stretches and casts her gaze down from the mountain, towards the Human Village. She can feel the faith of the humans in there flowing towards Minoriko, thanking her for another bountiful harvest this year. Envy of her sister’s popularity briefly pangs in her chest before being quickly brushed aside with a sigh.

She sees Minoriko circled by a modest crowd of humans, a few of them presenting her with baskets of sweet potatoes, carrots and beets. She thanks them for their faith, one by one, shaking their hands and returning the occasional hug with her plump, strong arms. After the crowd disperses, she raises her offerings and begins the long walk towards back to her home in the mountain. As she casts her gaze upon the blanket of leaves on the ground, she is enthralled by the mosaic of colors that they form, admiring how each leaf is painted in a unique shade of red, yellow and brown with the utmost care. Envy of her sister’s artistic skills briefly pangs in her chest before being quickly brushed aside with a smile.

She sees Rin and Utsuho lying in a large bed, side by side and naked, after spending a significant amount of time being intimate together. Utsuho is asleep, snoring loudly. Rin is resting her head over her hand, and gazes lovingly over her friend’s body; from her long and strong legs, to her sculpted abdomen, and finally to the large, jagged and beautiful burns and keloid scars that surround the glowing red eye of Yatagarasu that rests in the middle of her chest. Rin traces the diagonal, more clinical scar that denotes where Utsuho’s right breast once was with the tip of a clawed finger, making Utsuho shiver in her sleep. Rin giggles, and sighs contentedly.

She sees a furious Futo and Toijko arguing with an indifferent Seiga as an amused Miko watches, their discussion stemming from Seiga’s apparently improper behavior towards the Crown Prince. The rumbling of thunder starts to echo as their voices become higher and higher, and electricity crackles over Tojiko’s skin as she balls her fists. Miko’s amusement turns to slight worry as she sees black clouds gathering above them. She raises her voice, attempting to defuse the situation, but her furious servants turn to her in unison and order her to stay out of it as Seiga laughs behind them. Miko sighs, defeated, and decides to leave the room, least she be the victim of a stray lightning bolt.

She sees Seija sitting next to a fire, roasting a rat. She’s utterly alone except for the items that she stole, scattered haphazardly around her makeshift camp. As she watches the flames cook the unsavory meat, she hums a fast paced tune with a gleeful smile in her face and mirth in her eyes. The moment her meal is finally ready, she quickly grabs it and digs her sharp fangs into the rat, moaning in bliss at how perfect her life is.

She sees Ringo and Seiran sleeping in their rabbit forms alongside Eientei’s own herd, their slightly crumpled ears the only hint that they are not native to Earth. They think that they successfully fooled the “primitive, dull-witted earthlings” into thinking they are one of them, and for the most part, they are right. From the mansion’s garden entrance, however, Tewi watches over her sleeping family. There is a glint of mischievousness in her eyes as the thinks about the best way to introduce the new members of the group into the busy, energetic, and dangerous life of an Earth rabbit. A smile creeps on her face as she caresses her mochi mallet, course of action suddenly decided.

She sees Junko staring at the Moon from an empty clearing somewhere adjacent to Gensokyo. Her face is blank, her eyes are empty. She doesn’t breath, doesn’t blink, doesn’t move in even the slightest way. It could be said that she is lost in her thoughts, but the truth is that she probably has no thought crossing her mind at all. A voice that sounds like three echoes in the clearing for a moment, and Junko breaks away from her trance. She looks backwards, smiles an empty smile, and walks toward Hecatia’s open arms.

She sees Sumireko leaving her school’s gates, holding her bag tightly as she breaks into a sprint. She barely hears the complaints of the people that she bumps into, the desire to reach her home as quickly as possible the only thing in her mind as she navigates the maze that is the path between her house and school. And as she watches her run, Yukari feels the most fleeting longing for a barely remembered fragment of a memory, from a time so long past that she isn’t certain if it was ever real or not. But by the time Sumireko crosses the threshold of her home, it is gone, and she is unsure if it was ever really there.

Finally, casting her gaze upwards, her violet eyes turn golden as they catch a glimpse of all that composes existence itself, slipping through the tiniest of gaps in the corners of the void.

Chuckling, she decides that perhaps she has seen enough.

Her consciousness slowly drifts into nothingness, and the world fades into darkness.


	7. Marisa's Fragment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was inspired by MushinryuNinjutsu's suggestion about a story with Marisa going rare mushroom hunting. This turned a bit more literal than what was suggested, but I had fun writting it, hah.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Marisa ducked just in time to avoid the charged danmaku beam that passed right where her head was, the energy of the shot making the hairs on her neck stand.

‘ _And people say mushroom hunting is boring_ ’ she thought as she barrel rolled away, seconds before the beam exploded in dozens of green and yellow light balls that scattered in all directions. She zigzagged through them carefully, so as to not let the bag filled with mushrooms tied to her broom fall.

As the bullets faded, Marisa heard a loud roar of frustration. Chuckling, she turned her head to look at her opponent as she held her mini-hakkero high, sending an opposing barrage towards it.

A ten feet tall mushroom with a gaping maw full of needle-like teeth was hopping furiously in her direction, each time it landed making a thunderous noise that sent fairies and animals scampering away in confusion. Danmaku bullets charged all around it, forming a semi-circle around its bulbous purple cap. Surprisingly agile for its size, it dodged most of Marisa’s bullets by squashing itself against the ground, and the ones that it couldn’t avoid were intercepted by a mass of spores that rained from the net that hung down from its head.

An ear-splitting roar signaled the next barrage, and Marisa tightened her grip on her broom as the mushroom stopped and opened its mouth even wider. The separate danmaku bullets merged in front of it, and then exploded forward as a fast beam, catching at least one unfortunate fairy on its way to Marisa’s location. Another easy dodge that Marisa answered with a second hail of her own danmaku followed, which the monster in turn avoided by jumping particularly high.

“Pretty smart for a fungus, ain’t ya!” Marisa said, a grin in her lips as she reached behind her back for one of her special potions.

The mushroom only bellowed in response, lowering its head against the ground as it gathered energy around it. After a few seconds its cap started glowing with a bright purple light, and in the blink of an eye it threw itself against Marisa, danmaku bullets flying around it as it advanced like a maddened bull.

“Hey, are you stealin’ my spells?!” Marisa shouted as she hurled her potion against the charging beast, a thin laser shooting out of her mini-hakkero as she ascended through the air. “You ain’t no blazing star, that’s for sure!”

The laser hit the potion’s flask the second the mushroom’s cap connected with it, trigging a massive blue explosion that shook the forest’s ground and sent dirt and dead leaves flying everywhere.

Marisa watched with a grin as the debris dissolved against her wards. Her contentment, however, was short lived, as moments later the mushroom jumped out of the blue smoke like a bullet, a chunk missing from its cap.

“Are you kiddin’ me?” Marisa said, firing another danmaku barrage as the monster tried to bat her out of the sky using its body.

It went down too fast for any of Marisa’s bullets to hit, and just as it landed a wave of bullets spread from under its hood, covering a wide swath of the forest’s floor before they all shot up, forming an uncoordinated but dense mesh.

But it was far from being the highest amount of danmaku that Marisa had seen flying in her direction. She leisurely swan through the bullets, concentrating on dodging instead of attacking and just enjoying the sight of the multi-colored orbs against the lush background of the forest…

…which allowed the mushroom to sneak a long strand of its net around her ankle completely unnoticed.

“Are you _kiddin’ me_?!” Marisa shouted as she was forcibly pulled out of her broom, the speed that the monster dragged her making her feel like her brain was flipping out inside her skull, not helped by the fact her head was smacked against the ground before being hauled up again.

Her ears ringing, eyes blurred, and blood pulsating against her forehead, it took Marisa a few moments to notice she had stopped moving and was now hanging upside down, her dress slowly fluttering down over her face. Annoyed, she pinned it down with one hand, and looked around to remember what the hell she was doing with her legs up the air.

Then the heavy breathing and fungal stench reached her nose, and she saw the giant mushroom standing right in front of her.

It didn’t have eyes, but she knew the thing was furious.

“You know, physical contact is against danmaku rules” Marisa said, slowly reaching around her back.

The creature roared in response, spit and spores flying on Marisa’s face as the thing’s breath made her sway like a pendulum.

The monster’s throat started glowing bright with energy, and Marisa more hastily grasped at her potion pouch, praying that she still had something left in it as the mushroom’s danmaku grew larger and larger.

Just as the bullet stopped growing and the beast opened its maw wide, Marisa’s hand touched a cold, thin glass vial. Without taking another second to think, she closed her fingers around it and threw it as hard as she could down the monster’s hatch.

The second the vial touched the glowing bullet it exploded, ripping the mushroom’s net apart and sending Marisa spiraling through the air again, deaf and blinded by the noise and light. Her flight didn’t last long before she hit the trunk of a tree with full force, bouncing off it and landing on the mercifully soft ground with a dull ‘thud’.

Face down, of course.

“…ouch” Marisa said, mouth full of grass and regret.

Groaning and feeling every bone in her body popping into place, Marisa managed to roll over her back, finding herself staring at the clear blue skies above.

She looked to her side, where a large cloud of grey smoke still lingered.

“Well, at least it’s—“

Barely had the words left her mouth when then mushroom broke from the smoke, wobbling precariously.

The front if its net was entirely gone, as was the whole of its mouth and a large part of its body and cap. It jumped low and with difficulty, but it was clearly intent on settling things down with Marisa.

“ _Are you_ —no, you know what, whatever” Marisa said, turning her attention back to the sky above.

Hop by hop, the monster closed the distance between them, but it was clearly slowing down. When it was a dozen or so feet away from her, it finally lost its balance, the large fungal mass collapsing and tumbling down towards the ground.

Right on top of Marisa.

An extremely long and diversified list of expletives exploded from Marisa’s mouth, causing a flock of birds to fly away in distress and a number of nearby fairies to cover their ears in dismay.

It soon stopped as Marisa found her lungs devoid of air, not aided by the fact that a giant purple cap was pressing down on top of her.

Peace returned to the forest as the dust from the monster's collapse slowly settled, the grey smoke from Marisa's potion having been swept away as a light breeze began to blown.

“You know, I’m a good person,” Marisa said. “I fly on a broom. I make potions. I return my books from the library on time. I just wanted to stock up on my fly agaric and death caps and bamboo mushrooms.  I’m a good person. I don’t deserve this.”

“A doubtful claim, for sure” answered a cold, teasing voice just behind her.

Marisa inclined her head backwards as much as her strained neck could.

“Alice!” Marisa said, grinning wide when the upside-down image of the doll-like doll-maker entered her view. “Look what I found lurking in the back of the forest! Ain’t it a beauty?”

“It sure is” Alice said, touching the cap of the mushroom. One of her dolls approached the downed beast with its knife-sized sword, cutting a few pieces of it while another doll collected them into a glass container. “I wasn’t aware that there were any matango in the forest. They are very rare. Quite delicious if properly prepared too, or so I heard.”

“Yep, no need to thank me. ‘Tis what I do” Marisa said, somehow both sounding and looking incredibly satisfied with herself while covered with fungal monster. “Now, give me a hand, will ya?”

Alice took one good look at Marisa.

Then, wordlessly, she turned around and left.

“Oh, come on! Have you no decency left in that cold heart of yours?!” Marisa shouted, half-joking. She hadn’t really expected that the other magician would help her, but a few parting words would’ve been nice. “Come on, get me outta here and I’ll make you a free potion batch! Of your choosing, even!”

A number of dolls returned from the forest after that.

They all flew under the mushroom’s cap and, after making cute huffing noises, lifted it above Marisa’s body, allowing her to wriggle free of it.

“I’ll hold you on to that,” Alice said, through one of her dolls. “Now, come on. I’ll have you help me prepare dinner.”

Shaking her head but grinning nevertheless, Marisa got on her feet. A quick look around showed her broom, mini-hakkero and bag of mushrooms resting near a tree, thankfully on the ground.

She summoned all three things with a wave of her hand, chopped a few pieces off the mushroom’s cap, and flew into forest, towards Alice’s house.


End file.
